Hearing Scheduled On Bill Requiring Bottle Deposits

July 20, 1985|The Morning Call

The so-called bottle bill is back in the state Legislature in several versions this year.

The House Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee will hold a public hearing on one of the proposed bills from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday at the Berks County Agricultural Center, on County Road off Route 183 outside Leesport.

House Bill 479 proposes a 5-cent deposit on all soda, beer and mineral water containers and calls for abolition of six-pack holders that are not biodegradable and detachable pull tabs on cans.

State Rep. Curt Bowley, a Warren County Democrat who sponsored the bill, said the hearing will be the only one in the Reading-Lehigh Valley area.

Anyone wishing to testify should call Warren Lamm, committee executive director, at (717) 787-7083 to register. Bowley also invited written comments from people or groups who can not attend.

"That bill is in the (Senate) Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, and the chairman is not in favor of it so it probably won't make it out of committee," Helfrick said. He said there are two other bottle bills this session that went to the House Consumer Affairs Committee and which, he believes, may have a similar fate.

Bowley has high hopes his bill will make it out of the agriculture committee and to the floor for a vote this session, largely because of strong support from the Pennsylvania Farmers Association.

The state representative said his legislation does not differ much from bottle bills introduced into the General Assembly every year since 1971 - bills that have never made it out of committee.

Bowley said nine states now have a bottle bill. He said the bill would encourage recycling, lessen the amount of litter on highways and help farmers who get cans tossed in their field that end up in silage and might harm animals.

In areas facing a shortage of landfills, the measure would help reduce landfill use.

Bowley said the bottle industry and food and beverage merchants oppose the bill. Beverage distributors would be required to collect a nickel deposit on every bottle or can sold to a retailer. The retailer would then charge the consumer, and as cans and bottles are returned to the distributor, the retailer would get the five cents return and a two-cent handling fee.

Dave McCorkle, executive director for the Pennsylvania Food Merchants Association in Harrisburg, said the bottle bill could cause problems for merchants.

"Sanitation in the stores is a major concern," he said. "Based on our reviews of food stores in bottle bill states, keeping the store clean is much more difficult. Our members would be forced to handle dirty containers, sometimes with bugs, mice.

"We estimate statewide that stores would have to add $70 million in capital improvements to store the bottles and cans. There are about 12,000 food stores in Pennsylvania.

"For the consumer, we feel it would be inconvenient standing in line with containers, and expensive. We estimate it would cost $250 million in one year - for the two-cent handling charge on the 7.4 billion non-returnable containers sold in Pennsylvania each year."

He said the figure includes an increased cost of beverages, which has traditionally happened in bottle bill states because of the increased costs of distributors.

"We think there are better ways to encourage recycling in Pennsylvania," he said. The association supports a comprehensive litter control plan, he added, like Washington state has.

"It has been stated in testimony that the bottle bill would put a number of recyclers out of business," he said. "It would also be a security problem. People do steal the cans if a merchant tries to store them outside a building, because they're worth something."

Under Bowley's bill, the state Agriculture Department would administer the law and would issue permits for container redemption centers.